| Semester 2, 2022 Online | |
| Units : | 1 |
| Faculty or Section : | Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences |
| School or Department : | School of Engineering |
| Grading basis : | Graded |
| Course fee schedule : | /current-students/administration/fees/fee-schedules |
Staffing
Examiner:
Requisites
Pre-requisite: CIV1501 or CIV1500 or Students must be enrolled in one of the following Programs: MENS or GCEN or GEPR
Overview
This course provides a basic introduction to Geology and Soil Mechanics.
All engineers working with soils and rocks must understand the range of techniques available for both identifying these materials and for determining their physical and mechanical properties. The course provides an introduction to both geology and soil mechanics. Geological information affects engineering decisions in the design and planning stages because all large-scale engineering works have their foundations in rock or soil. Many projects, such as dam walls and pavements are also built from these materials. A working knowledge of geologically applied design limitations is therefore required by all engineers involved in foundation works. Students will also be introduced to the basic concepts of soil mechanics that are widely used in the design of geotechnical engineering problems such as flow nets, soil consolidation and settlement of structures. The emphasis throughout the course is placed on a practical understanding of these topics.
Course learning outcomes
The course objectives define the student learning outcomes for a course. On completion of this course students should be able to:
- examine and categorise a limited group of minerals and hand specimens of rocks;
- distinguish structural properties of rocks such as faults, folds and joints, and interpret their relevance for engineering and soil formation processes;
- interpret geological maps and understand the fundamental procedures of site investigation, relating such information to engineering;
- understand the basic characteristics of soils such as soil physics, soil compaction, soil chemistry, soil plasticity, particle size distribution and soil classification;
- explain the concept of effective and total stresses in saturated soils;
- apply Darcy's Law to simple soil structures and find permeability characteristics from the provided test data; employ the procedures involved in constructing flow nets to solve specific problems;
- use available methods to estimate elastic stress changes in soil and calculate elastic settlement under a variety of external loading systems;
- calculate the consolidation settlement under a single footing using the concept of one dimensional consolidation theory.
Topics
| Description | Weighting(%) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Structure of the Earth and Historical Geology | 5.00 |
| 2. | Minerals, Igneous, Sedimentary & Metamorphic Rock Types, Weathering and Structural Geology | 10.00 |
| 3. | Geology Maps, Site Investigation, Engineering Properties of Rocks and Rock Construction Materials | 10.00 |
| 4. | Introduction and Physical Properties of Soils | 10.00 |
| 5. | Effective Stress Concept | 10.00 |
| 6. | Permeability and Flow Nets | 25.00 |
| 7. | Stress Distribution in Soil | 15.00 |
| 8. | Consolidation of Soil and Settlement of Structures | 15.00 |
Text and materials required to be purchased or accessed
Student workload expectations
To do well in this subject, students are expected to commit approximately 10 hours per week including class contact hours, independent study, and all assessment tasks. If you are undertaking additional activities, which may include placements and residential schools, the weekly workload hours may vary.
Assessment details
| Description | Group Assessment |
Weighting (%) | Course learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quiz | No | 15 | 1,2,3,4 |
| Problem Solving | No | 45 | 1,2,3,5,6 |
| Time limited online examinatn | No | 40 | 4,5,6,7,8 |